The other night I posted on my Facebook wall, saying that I've really picked the wrong thing to study. Then one of my friends asked what I really want to do with my life, it really didn't take me that long to answer. I'd really love to be a PT. This then raised a question about my back and how a year ago I had ruled out everything that included anything physical. It was such a fair question and it is something even I thought about when I was figuring out what to do with my life. What if my back gets worse again? What if I do have to go for the spinal fusion in the end? Can I ever do a physical job?

If someone told me a year ago that I'd be healthy enough to seriously consider a job in fitness, I really would've laughed. A year ago I was in agonising pain every day, even standing up for 15 minutes was painful. I could do very little house work (hoovering was completely out of the question for example), I was miserable and just saw no light at the end of the tunnel.

At that stage I was trying to go for something that wouldn't involve heavy lifting and would allow me to sit down for most of the day. Because I have a really long history with graphics and computers (+ sitting on a computer 90% of the time), that really felt like the way to go for me. But even back in college I really didn't enjoy it that much. Now that I'm studying graphics in uni, it's even more obvious that it's not what I want to do. In a way I feel like I chose this course for the very wrong reasons. But then again, I had no idea that I would actually be this healthy.

Back in 2009, when my spondylolisthesis was diagnosed. It's a shame I don't have a copy of the scans I had done last year.

It's odd how it's such a chain reaction, when things actually start changing for the better. As I started dropping the weight last year, I noticed that I could do more and more every month. I started with 30 minute walks, slowly got into doing various exercise DVDs at home, and once I had built up enough core strength I joined a gym for the first time ever. All this combined made it possible for me to cancel the spinal fusion surgery I was scheduled in for last November. 

I mean, this doesn't mean that I'm going to go straight for a PT course after I finish this year of uni. You don't get a qualification like that for free, I will probably end up working for at least another year to be able to fund it all properly. And I want to make sure that my back will actually be able to handle more physical workouts before signing up for anything. I still have a bad spine, and I always will. I have roughly a 50% slip in my lower spine, with the discs on both sides being pretty much non existent because of it. I will always get achy days. It's just about how bad the pain will be, when my core is as strong as it can be. It is by far one of my biggest goals in this whole thing, I want to have a strong enough core to support my spine through everything I decide to put it through.